Leveraging Cloud and Virtualization for Disaster Recovery

Cloud for replication. Site-to-site replication has become easier with the utilization of both private and public cloud technologies. With better storage systems and more control over the WAN, organizations are able to better replicate their environments. This can be entire virtual machines, specific databases, or just data points. Furthermore, cloud computing has made disaster recovery much more financially feasible for more organizations. Why? The inherent flexibility of the cloud means you can dictate exactly how much downtime your organization can tolerate and where the costs break even. With that, companies who are trying to stay financial conscious are able to design a solution that fits both – the data center and the budget.

Virtualization as a mechanism for backup and recovery. The idea is simple. It’s much easier to recover a virtual machine than it is a physical device. So, administrators with numerous VMs in their environment are working with virtualization-ready backup strategies to keep their data centers agile. Snapshots can be distributed to various points using private networks or cloud technologies. Furthermore, administrators are able to have “mirrored” VMs running at a remote site ensuring an active/active scenario should one of the vital corporate VM workloads fail.

Using-software defined technologies. The conversation around software-defined technologies continues to grow where some see this term as an extension to virtualization. Software-defined platforms can range from networking equipment to security appliances. The idea is to create a truly agile environment where various “virtual” networking instances can be deployed. For example, Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB) can greatly assist a DR strategy. By load balancing data centers on a distributed level, administrators are able to seamlessly (and automatically) point users to a different data center should the primary go down. In fact, a similar connection can be created whether that secondary data center is privately held or provisioned by a data center provider. For the end-user, the transition is almost transparent. For the IT administrator and the business manager, this means – very simply – less downtime and faster recovery.

IaaS or “Data Center On-Demand.” Cloud and virtualization platforms now allow for the very fast provisioning of needed resources. In a disaster scenario, the ability to recovery VMs and data, quickly, is essential. This is where cloud computing and virtualization can help. Administrators are able to create active/active or active/passive IaaS solutions which can be very cost-effective.  For example, an engineer can set a backup cycle with a given provider. That information is then housed in the form of dormant VMs and backup data. Then, if an emergency happens – the organization can ask the provider to immediately spin up new VMs and attach their data to the newly provisioned environment. Although recovery isn’t immediate, it’s still very quick. Furthermore, organizations are able to adopt a “pay-as-you-go” model so that VMs are only paid for when used. On the other hand, organizations requiring high levels of uptime may simply have the VMs already running. The point behind a data center on-demand platform is the flexibility. Depending on your recovery needs, you can use a provider to help you gain that DR agility.